You don't work as hard as Helm does during the off-season if you are content with your current status.
You don't push and pull a 630-pound sled in the summer heat four times a week if you are happy being a third-line center.
"He's the exception to the rule," said Richard Burr, who trains Helm and a group of other NHL players during the offseason in Winnipeg. "You put him in a group with the other guys sprinting up the hill and he's got an extra gear. You know, you look at him and he's not overly big. But every ounce of him is a powerhouse."
Helm credits Burr with helping him become one of the fastest and strongest skaters in the league. Burr puts Helm and a group of NHL players that includes Chicago's Cam Barker and Nashville's Dustin Boyd through an unconventional, hockey-specific regimen that features a lot of sled work.
"You get a lot of bang for your buck," Burr said. "You really work the legs in a hockey-specific fashion. The way your legs work to move the sled up a hill is similar to how your nervous system reacts on the ice."
The sleds weigh 50 pounds. Depending on the day, Burr will load them with any number of 45-pound plates — two plates on light days, to four plates on normal days, to the full 14 plates on the extreme heavy days.
Players will pull the sled 90 percent of the time, to engage the arms like you would on the ice, and push it 10 percent of the time. Burr will have them pulling it up a steep, grassy hill, and do 20-yard sprints with the sled on a paved, dead-end street.
"Darren is unbelievable," Burr said. "His muscle fiber, his fast-twitch muscles, watching him jump is like watching a deer or a grasshopper. He's so explosive."
Dog days
Helm believes it is no coincidence he had his most productive stretch of the season during the dog-days in December and January. He credits his work with Burr for giving him an edge when others were fatigued."Eighty-two games is long for everybody, and it can be mentally and physically draining at times," Helm said. "You see a lot of teams get complacent and tired during the season and kind of go into cruise control. That's when I had the opportunity to get a lot of points. That's why I keep working so hard in the offseason."
Moving sleds during the offseason may give him an extra burst and enhance the one skill that got him to the NHL — skating — but Helm knows it won't help him put more pucks into the net.
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